Police identify person they want to question

Madeleine Bombshell: Police net closes in on just one man who is key to the mysteryDETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have identified a person they want to question and have been given an extra £85,000 to follow up the crucial lead.

There is a new suspect in the disappearance of Maddie McCann British police received more funds to follow new clues, which will point to Portuguese citizens.

By Pedro Zagacho Gonçalves | 12:38

The English investigators who are in charge of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a girl who disappeared in 2007 in Praia da Luz in the Algarve, have received more funds for the investigation to last at least until September.

Police will have clues pointing to the existence of a new suspect.

VIDEO English police have new clue about Madeleine McCann

Inspectors want to question a Portuguese citizen

Funding for research funding would be suspended in the coming weeks, but now the British government has approved an extension of more than 96,000 euros to investigate this new suspect, who will be Portuguese.

The man was spotted near the Ocean's Club, where Kate and Gerry McCann were with their children at the time of the girl's disappearance. British police are preparing to question the new suspect. "We are pleased to announce this new support to the British police, who are trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Madeleine McCann.

We want to end the history and justice to the family," said Policing Minister Brandon Lewis Saturday. "After requesting new funds for the Metropolitan Police, 85,000 pounds were made available to support the costs of the Grange Opration, which will last from April to September 2017," the spokesman for the British government said.

So far, the investigation into Maddie's disappearance has already cost the British coffers more than 12.5 million euros.

Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of the English girl, also have a fund of more than 800 thousand euros. Some of this money will have been used to pay the legal costs of the lawsuit that the couple filed - and lost - against Gonçalo Amaral, a former PJ inspector.

Madeleine McCann cops hunt worker at resort as they fear he 'kept secrets' from local police

British officers are convinced the former worker at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz knows more than he's told them

BY TRACEY KANDOHLA/MATTHEW YOUNG

22:25, 12 MAR 2017 UPDATED00:23, 13 MAR 2017

Police are hunting for a worker from the resort where Madeleine McCann vanished who they believe has clues about her ­disappearance.

The Portuguese man was at the Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz when the three-year-old was snatched in 2007.

He gave a statement at the time but detectives fear he may have kept secrets.

A local police source said: “British officers are very keen to question him.”

The former resort worker being hunted by police on the Madeleine McCann case gave a ­witness statement two days after the girl vanished.

But British officers trying to find the youngster fear he may have kept secrets from local detectives that could have led to a ­breakthrough in the case.

And they now want to speak to the former staff member who worked at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on the Algarve, where three-year-old Madeleine vanished in May 2007.

A Portuguese police source said: “British officers are convinced he knows more than he was previously saying and are very keen to question him.

“They are not suggesting he stole Maddie but he may know people who could have been involved after a burglary went wrong. The investigation in Britain seems to be grinding to a halt and they want to rule him out of the case if not rule him in.

“Then detectives know they have done everything in their power to try to solve the case.

“This Portuguese man used to work at the club resort, he speaks a bit of English.”

Another source reportedly said: “There is just one person detectives want to speak to who was near to the area Madeleine disappeared from 10 years ago.

“An international search has been under way to find them.”

The “solid live lead” is seen as strong enough to have persuaded the Home Office to plough £85,000 more into the Met’s Operation Grange. That will extend the search for ­Madeleine until September.

BRITISH detectives hunting Madeleine McCann have been accused of chasing a suspect who was cleared years ago.

Portuguese former police inspector Carlos Anjos said the decision to award Scotland Yard an extra £85,000 to find the missing youngster was “shocking”. (Anjos is another member of Amaral's gang).

Anjos claims the Met is trying to “forcefully place the blame” on a homeless drifter who cannot afford a lawyer.

The suspect was a worker at the Portuguese holiday resort where then-three-year-old Madeleine vanished in 2007 while her parents dined with pals in a tapas bar.

Police say the man had stolen a “handful of things from a bedroom” of an unlocked apartment at noon that day.

But he was eliminated from inquiries as he was “far away” when Madeleine disappeared.

Portugal’s ex-minister of internal affairs Rui Pereira suggested the new probe was a “reaction of the English authorities” to former detective Goncalo Amara’s court battle with Madeleine’s doctor parents Kate, 49, and Gerry, 48, in Portugal’s Supreme Court.

He said: “Nothing else really explains that a new lead was followed now when it is in fact an old lead.’’